Contestations over knowledge production or ideological bullying? A response to Legassick on the workers' movement

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Abstract

The key characteristic of the vast amount of literature on the South African workers
ʼ movement in the post-1973 period is the denial that the class and national
struggles were closely intertwined. This denial is underpinned by a strong ʻantinationalist
currentʼ which dismisses the national liberation struggle as ʻpopulist
and nationalistʼ and therefore antithetical to socialism. This article cautions
against uncritical endorsement of these views. It argues that they are the work
of partisan and intolerant commentators who have dominated the South African
academy since the 1970s and who have a tendency to suppress all versions of
labour history which highlight these linkages in favour of those which portray
national liberation and socialism as antinomies. The article also points out that
these commentators use history to mobilise support for their rigidly held ideological
positions and to wage current political struggles under the pretext of advancing
objective academic arguments.